Top 10: MLB Colleges

Any former baseball player will tell you the same thing: Baseball is one of the most difficult sports to master. To play the game well and to succeed, a baseball player must possess incredibly sharp hand-eye coordination, a strong mental capacity and a penchant for studying your opponent. These qualities are rare, and in the case of Major League Baseball, nearly unreachable. GMs and scouts for the 32 major league teams scour the high school and college ranks for special individuals, and when they do, you can bet that certain colleges are always on their short list. We've ranked this list according to the number of players in the MLB, not according to the number of draft picks each college has produced. Here are the top 10 colleges that produce MLB players.

Number 10

University of Nebraska

Number of MLB draft picks: 216Number of MLB players: 29 Reason for success: Nebraska's reputation as a pro-baseball factory has existed for decades, but the Cornhuskers only recently started experiencing the kind of success most baseball schools achieve on a regular basis. With three College World Series appearances (2001, 2002 and 2005) in five years, Head Coach Mike Anderson is showing the rest of the Big 12 that his players are winners and talented enough for major league teams to develop.

Honor list: Darin Erstad and Pete O'Brien.

Class of 2008: Jeff Tezak led the Huskers with a .335 batting average and had a .429 on-base percentage; he can also play multiple positions and is a coveted left-handed batter.

Number 9

University of Miami, FL

Number of MLB draft picks: 207Number of MLB players: 37

Reason for success: Florida keeps dipping into the well and pulling up major league talent. Miami as been as good as any at keeping some of that talent in state, and developing that talent into champions. The Hurricanes have four National Championships and 35 postseason appearances. Ron Fraser resurrected a team that didn't even have uniforms in the early 1960s and made them a perennial winner. Honor list: Pat Burrell, Aubrey Huff, Charles Johnson, and Greg Vaughn. Class of 2008: Yonder Alonso absolutely destroyed ACC pitching in his 2007 sophomore year with 74 RBIs in 61 games, 18 home runs, and a jaw-dropping .705 slugging percentage.

Number 8

Cal State Fullerton

Number of MLB draft picks: 219Number of MLB players: 42

Reason for success: The Titans, the only team on this list not from a major conference, has toed the line in the Big West conference with all of the fervor of a school with double the budget. Defying the odds, Fullerton has 15 College World Series appearances and four titles, and it recruits a plethora of players who would normally choose a larger school with more money. Head Coach George Horton has done a lot with a little, winning over 450 games in 11 seasons at the helm.

Honors list: Mark Kotsay, Phil Nevin, Tim Wallach, and Chad Cordero.

Class of 2008: Jeff Kaplan won 11 games and had two shutouts with a 3.30 ERA against top level competition — exactly what MLB scouts like to see.